Bin Strike Paused In Adur & Worthing As Unions Meet To Negotiate

Bin collections resumed in Adur and Worthing yesterday (Tuesday, April 12th) ahead of talks today over pay and conditions with the GMB and Unison.

The council is drawing up plans to help work through the backlog and bin lorries left the depot immediately to start clearing up.

All staff will receive a one-off 'catch up' payment for the extra work they'll need to do after four weeks of rubbish build-up.

Striking members of the GMB union voted to pause the strike at the Council’s refuse, recycling and cleansing service at Commerce Way, Lancing, yesterday morning.

Waste was collected from communal bin stores, such as those in blocks of flats, and residents are asked to leave their bins out today (Wednesday) for normal collection - side waste will also be taken.

To double check when your bin day is visit this section of our website: https://www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/bin-day/.

Street cleansing teams will be out as normal, as they have been working throughout the strike, to keep public areas clean.

In a joint statement the Councils and the GMB said:

"We have today (Tuesday) agreed that there will be a pause in the strike which will allow for waste collections to resume and for work to remove the backlog of waste to begin. To recognise the extra work needed a one-off payment will be given to staff to help ensure all backlog work is completed as soon as possible. Substantive talks on pay and conditions will begin tomorrow."

A spokesman for Adur & Worthing Councils said:

“At all times during this dispute it is our residents and businesses that have been in the forefront of our minds and we have been working  to find a way that bin rounds can resume while we work through these very complex issues on pay and conditions within the service.

“We have now come to an arrangement with the GMB that means it will pause its strike which will allow the rounds to restart immediately whilst we move forward to discuss the issues surrounding pay and conditions.

“We thank residents and businesses for their patience and appreciate the difficulties this has caused them. Clearly this is not the end of the matter and there’s a lot to work through but for now we can quickly start to get the backlog of refuse cleared.”

The councils say that on Friday (April 8) they signed a joint recognition agreement with the GMB and UNISON which gives both unions the right to represent staff at the waste service. A recognition agreement governs the terms under which employers negotiate with unions and needs to be signed before talks on pay and conditions can begin. UNISON already has a recognition deal with the Councils to represent staff across all services but had agreed to sit down with the GMB to discuss a joint agreement solely for waste services. 

Now talks will begin today on pay and conditions. A review which began in October and in which all staff and UNISON were consulted has resulted in a deal which gives all waste workers at least a six per cent pay rise in the first year. HGV drivers have immediately received a 12.7 per cent pay rise.